


I Did Not See That Coming

by watcherofworlds



Series: Whumptober 2020 [18]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Blackmail, Gen, Prompt Fill, Whumptober, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:15:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27098713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watcherofworlds/pseuds/watcherofworlds
Summary: Prompt fill for Whumptober Day 17 "I Did Not See That Coming"
Series: Whumptober 2020 [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1956160
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	I Did Not See That Coming

**Author's Note:**

> Please note that the aim here is absolutely _not_ to make Robert sympathetic. I have no interest in doing that, I just thought it might be interesting to try and get inside the head of a character that I don't like.

Robert stared at the text message on his phone, bold and blunt like a portent of doom-  _ I know about your second family. _ Accompanying the text was a picture of Kazumi and Emiko at the park. It had been taken from a long way off, probably with some sort of telephoto lens, but it was clearly,  _ unmistakably _ , them.

Robert stared at the text and the accompanying photograph until his eyes burned and his vision swam, hoping he could simply will them away, but when he blinked again and his vision refocused, they were still there. He knew what he had to do. 

_ What do you want from me? _ He tapped out his reply to the text with shaking fingers, grateful that he was alone in his office, that there was no one around to see him in such a compromised position.

_ Count yourself lucky that I don’t want everything you have _ , came the reply.  _ Just a...sizable portion of it. _

_ What do you want me to do? _ Robert asked.

_ You’re going to transfer five thousand dollars into the account I’m going to send you by end of day on Friday _ , the blackmailer replied.  _ And every Friday. _

_ For how long? _ Robert asked, feeling his heart race and his mind along with it. Setting up an account with which to make those payments that couldn’t be traced back to him was relatively easy. In fact, he had already done something similar in order to be able to provide for Kazumi and Emiko without anyone knowing. The only question was how long he would have to maintain it this time around.

_ Until I tell you to stop _ , the blackmailer answered.

_ And if I don’t? _ Robert asked, already knowing that it was unlikely that he wouldn’t. _ If I refuse? _

_ Then the next person I send that photograph to will be your wife _ , the blackmailer replied. _ I do hope that you’ll make the right decision. Good day, Mr. Queen.  _ With that, it was clear that his correspondence with the blackmailer was over. 

Robert felt chilled to his very core. Even if he hadn’t already been considering complying with the blackmailer’s demands, their last message would have clinched it. He would not,  _ could _ not, allow Moira to find out about his relationship with Kazumi or about Emiko. He could handle being crucified in the court of public opinion- it had happened to him many times before- but his wife’s vengeance was something he feared above all else. If she were to learn of the existence of his second family, that event would surely spell its end. She would force him to abandon Emiko and her mother, and they would no longer be a family. Of that much he was certain. 

In a perfect world, of course, Robert wouldn’t have to hide his relationship with Kazumi or the existence of their child at all. In a perfect world, the world Robert sometimes imagined in his dreams, they all lived together as one family. In that world, Oliver got to grow up with his sister, and Emiko was able to know and to have a relationship with her brother. But that world didn’t exist, and Robert knew, with more certainty than he had ever known anything in his life, that he would do whatever it took to maintain his small, paltry approximation of it.


End file.
